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FayettevilleWest

When you click on any of the underlined words (FayettevilleWest) below, you’ll be heading West to explore Fayetteville's last frontier (map below), our modern-day land rush now sprawling from I-540 westward to Oklahoma.

Our aim is to take all of the Fayetteville community on daily virtual journeys through the explosive growth of Fayetteville's wildly-growing West. (For the bigger picture, the City's official website at http://www.faygis.org/ will point you to our City’s world-class Geographic Information System web site. Similarly, the North West Arkansas Planning commission has a site at http://www.nwarpc.com , which carries related Regional Information.

(Click on map below to enlarge.)

First Stop: Rupple Boulevard and Wedington

Your clicks will take you along Rupple Boulevard, a newly proposed thoroughfare (See RuppleRoad) that stretches north-to-south, west of I -540, with side trips through Fayetteville’s most recently annexed countryside. (See strip map from City Master Plan at bottom of this page.) And we'll scout out the (literally) thousands of acres of new homes and commerce springing up on yesterdays’ pasture land and fields.

RuppleRoad curves north-and south from WedingtonRoad and is perhaps best known today as the route to the Fayetteville’s new BoysAndGirlsClub? and FireStation7?. However, it’s easy to imagine Rupple in the mid-19th century, filled each Sunday morning with family buggies and wagons headed to Mt.ComfortChurch, a landmark even then and site of Fayetteville’s earliest development. But time and technology have been unkind to Rupple. Although its roadside retains its charm, you'll cringe as your car weaves along the shoulderless lanes that scarcely allow two autos to pass , especially on the blind curves that once led to fords on the creeks along the way. And you'll find none of Rupple's former grace in the jerky strands of noisy vehicles, each dump truck, school bus and car hugging right onto the non-existent shoulders. Walking, biking, and jogging become daredevil sports on Rupples narrow 10-ft. lanes, now unsafe for either two or four-legged creatures.

In fields close by, bulldozers root the rich pastureland into clusters of streets and home , and some reports suggest we'll soon have 2,000 to 3,000 new housing units along Rupple and its neighboring streets. But those projections depend heavily on availability of sewers and streets that are fast nearing maximum capacity. And, given the pace of Fayetteville’s growth , the current planning and design data is sketchy at best, although our Ward 4 council members are doing their level best to keep the community informed. The City’s Planning and Engineering resources are stretched badly to keep up with Ward 4’s explosive growth and outmoded infrastructure.

However, Fayetteville’s proposed Transportation Improvement Plan currently calls for Rupple Boulevard to feed north from Hwy 62 (6th Street) near Lowes and Wal-Mart with what seems sure to become a major North-South throughway. The proposed boulevard, lined with trees and ample sidewalks, bike paths and trails, would extend Rupple Boulevard north to the Boys and Girls Club andthe new school at Rupple & Persimmon. It would then cross Wedington and head further north to Mt. Comfort, passing near Holt Middle School, only a couple of blocks from Salem Road and Holcomb Elementary School. Rupple would continue north to Howard Nickell and then head east to Hwy 112 and the Northwest Arkansas Mall. To locate the Rupple route, you can first zoom out and locate Rupple Road on the Regional Commission's 2030 Proposed Network of highways and roads (Map above.

We’ll lead off with some background on Rupple Road and current nearby developments. (Some like the OakbrookeBellwoodSubdivisions?? have generated protest by neighbors who are dissatisfied with some of the planning and design, which apparently will dump even more traffic onto Rupple.) Later, we’ll be adding other related photos and information from the local media and from the City government pages, including reports from the Planning and Engineering Divisions, the City Council, and the Planning Commission.)

More to come

Later, we’ll be bringing you closer looks at other developments, and related street and sewer plans as the City works its way through the current issues with Westside waste treatment and the proposed Street Improvement Plan, which are very much “Under Construction”, as is “Fayetteville West”. We’ll be bringing you regular updates as Fayetteville continues its growth westward.